Fredrik Haren’s Post

Here is the latest episode of The Creativity Suite. Key sentence: Few things are more powerful than a motivated person. Full text: Innovation Motivation is a systematic way of thinking about how to build an organization full of people motivated to innovate. All companies want innovation, but few companies actually think about what would make people want to innovate. Perhaps the most important aspect for getting people to innovate is that they have “Innovation Motivation”. I was inspired to think about Innovation Motivation during a conversation with Lars Bratthall . Lars has a long career in innovation, from ABB Corporate Research, DNV Research and Innovation etc and now as CIO at Multiconsult. (Multiconsult is one of the leading firms of architects, consulting engineers, and designers in Norway, with roots dating back to 1908.) He has worked for organizations with very innovative people and companies where innovation hardly happened. His insight is that the companies where innovation thrived understood the concept of “Innovation Motivation.” One such place was ABB Corporate Research. Lars: “Att ABB (at the time) they understood that you need to support creativity for it to happen.” The concept of Innovation Motivation is simple: 1) People will not innovate if they are not motivated to be creative. 2) Different people are motivated by different things. 3) The leaders who figure out what specific things motivate their people will get more innovation. 4) Unfortunately, most leaders are not spending enough time to think about Innovation Motivation. If you have a leadership which is focused on understanding what structures, incentives, activities and processes that will motivate people to innovate in their unique culture and environment then your innovation will thrive. And the key to Innovation Motivation is to understand that different people are motivated by different things. If you want the organization to be motivated to innovate, it's not enough to figure out what motivates the people in the organization. Generally, you need to look at each unique individual and figure out what could motivate them. Is it fame and recognition? Is it money? Is it the thrill of creating new things in a group? Is it revenge? Few things are more powerful than a motivated person. So figure out which “buttons” to press for people to be motivated to innovate and the rest will, almost, take care of itself. What motivates your people to innovate? What could make them more motivated to innovate?

What are the best speaker testimonials? The unprompted ones. The ones where you do not have to ask for them, but the client writes to the speaker after the event saying: "Would you like me to send you a testimonial?" (And yes, this is me blatantly promoting my speeches on the topics of creativity, innovation and change, since I would love to speak more in #Denmark. ;-) And it doesn't hurt when you then get this: "I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing Fredrik Härén, the Creativity Explorer, on two occasions: First at an event I attended, and later at an event I hired him for. Fredrik has a remarkable ability to gauge the mood of the audience. He adeptly starts by making them doubt his creative abilities, only to then confuse, surprise, and ultimately earn their complete respect. Fredrik led both the ice breaker and a subsequent workshop and the audience feedback went through the roof. His workshops truly are mind-blowing and inspiring. I highly recommend including Fredrik Härén for your events as a keynote speaker or kickstarter/ice breaker, or one of his workshops where you learn to free your thoughts and think outside the box for creative problem-solving."   Helle Egholm Lorentzen Partner and event manager, Danish Conference Venues #creativityspeaker

Do I know of any #doctor who would like to be interviewed by a young Afghan girl studying medicine? I recently, via Zoom, did a pro-bono speech on #creativity for a secret school for girls in Afghanistan. One girl, who is studying to become a doctor, got very excited about the concept of interviewing doctors in other countries as a way of opening up her mind. She has already started doing the interviews and she asked me if I could introduce her to some doctors who are willing to do a quick zoom call with her. Please LinkedIn, help me connect with the right person(s). ps. These girls were to inspiring to e-meet, full of energy and hope despite all that is happening in their country. Help me share with the doctors in your network. Have them send me a message on LinkedIn if they are willing to give a few minutes of their time to encourage this young woman and to help her in creating a career in medicine.

The latest episode of The Creativity Suite is with Johan Maresch, CDO at Perstorp Group and the theme is "Bursting the corporate filter bubble". Enjoy. #creativity #thecreativitysuite

Many years ago I had a 90+ old neighbor who, after a life working as a hairdresser, still had clients. I asked her: "I love this, so you are never going to retire?!" She replied: "I haven't taken on new clients in decades, and my old clients keep dying off, so I have fewer and fewer clients each year. When my last client dies, I will stop." At that time, she had just two living clients left ... But she kept her at-home-salon open for those two old clients. She told me that having one leg left in her professional life made her feel more useful and energized. And she loved cutting people's hair. This story is a reminder to me (and you) not to accept how people or society expect you to live your life. (In this case: "You work, then you retire!"). Live your life. (I wish I had a photo of her, but I do not so I asked ChatGPT to make one for me. The photo is AI generated, but the story is real.) #creativity #dontletothersdecide

In 1924 Miguel de Unamuno wrote: "Skeptic does not mean him who doubts, but him who investigates or researches as opposed to him who asserts and thinks that he has found.” One hundred years later this message is more important than ever. The root of the word “skeptic” comes from the word "spek- meaning "to observe”.  To be a sceptic originally did not mean to be negative, it only meant to have an open mind and a broad view on a topic and to look at closely at it. And to “scepticize” is the act of being sceptical. It’s an actual word from the 1600s that, sadly, never caught on. We should bring it back. Because sceptizizing has never been more important than now. With stronger and stronger tools, such as AI and algorithms what we humans can create is becoming more and more powerful, but with all new technologies there are also numerous potentially dangerous, negative or unwanted side effects. Whenever we invent something new we need to be able to also identify these unwanted and unintended consequences, as well as the great ones. To do this is a skill. A very important skill. We often talk about the need to be able to say “What if…?” in order to be able to find new potential. But we also need the ability to say “Yes, but what if…?” - in other words have the ability to see the less positive scenarios. Doing this is not to be “negative”; it’s to be creative enough to see multiple scenarios. It’s extra important when it comes to new technologies since the ethical aspects of them have not been discussed before. __________________________ This text was inspired by a conversation with Frank Ferro, Director Insights at PostNL, the postal company of the Netherlands. At his department, they develop powerful algorithms that affect millions. He told me about one time when the fraud detection team had developed an algorithm to identify customers who were underreporting the number of letters they were sending in order to pay less in postage. The solution was a great way to identify unethical customers. But Frank scepticized the solution and asked: “If the algorithm can detect companies that are underreporting the number of letters they send, can it also identify companies that are over-reporting the number of letters they send?” The other in the team looked at him with confused faces. “We have never thought of this.” Frank explained that wrongly overcharging customers was unethical, and if the algorithm could help them stop that it would be the right thing to do. The trick to scepticizing, according to Frank Ferro, is to have the ability to withhold judgement. To take the time to reflect on as many alternative scenarios as possible in order to observe what you are working on from as many different ways as possible. Scepticizing is a highly creative act. One we should encourage more people to engage in. #creativity #thecreativitysuite #PostNL #Netherlands

Don’t tell me what i can’t do. Tell me what i should do. The sign at the closest door to the parking at the venue of my daughter’s gymnastics competition says “Only gymnasts, coaches, judges and staff” It’s should say: “Only gymnasts, coaches, judges and staff. Parents and fans enter through the door up the hill.” Why are people making signs more focused on telling people what not to do, instead of telling them where they can do what they want to do. Happens all the time “No dogs allowed.” Vs “no dogs allowed, but feel free to tie them to the fence and we will offer them some water.” “No smoking.” Vs “No smoking, but there is a smoking room at the end of the hallway.” Etc etc Lesson: make sure to solve the problems you create for others when you create a solution that solves your problem. #creativity

Interview with Nils Kjetil Vestmoen Nilsen, Digital Innovation Manager at SLB about why you should not "take calculated risk", but why you should take "calibrated risk". People like to talk about the need to take ‘calculated risks’ in business. But calculated risks are an illusion. The meaning of the word “calculated” is “done with full awareness of the likely consequences.” Raise your hand if you think it’s possible to have “full awareness of the likely consequences of where your business is going right now? (and if you think it is possible, then what is the risk?) No, instead of chasing the mirage that is “calculated risk”, we should aim to take “calibrated risk”. The meaning of the word “calibrated” is “carefully assessed, set, or adjusted.” Now that sounds a much more relevant approach to taking risk, to constantly and carefully assess, set and adjust your actions towards the perceived risks out there. I learned about “calibrated risk” from Nils Kjetil Vestmoen Nilsen, Digital Innovation Manager at Schlumberger , an energy company. They work with technologies to support exploration, drilling, and production of oil and gas, as well as with renewable energy. Nils job is about helping to digitalise the oil and gas industry. While the industry was very early in using big data and AI there is always new frontiers to aim for. Right now a moonshot project they are working on is “the self drilling oil rig” as well as projects to return CO2 back to the ground. At the same time they are introducing smaller changes to their clients. Talking to me about “calibrated risk” Nils told me: “Calibrated risk is about balancing the different kinds of risk you are taking. Some big, hairy goals and some moonshot ideas, but also some low hanging fruits and low risk projects.” Taking calibrated risk is not about going “all in” on one “big idea”. Instead, it’s about going “all kinds of in” on a mix ideas with different levels of risk. Nils told me: “(When you drill for oil) you are always in uncharted territory. No-one has been where you are going, so there is no way of having full awareness of all the likely consequences. Instead, we have to constantly adjust. That means we also have to have an arsenal of innovation projects with different levels of risk, as well as different potential reward.” Take no risk and you play it safe but you might be over run by the competitors. Take too much risk and you might hit the jackpot, but you might also totally miss the mark. So take calibrated risk where you create a platter of innovation initiatives of various risk, some low risk, some high risk - and always calibrate them by assessing and adjusting them to what’s happening. #creativity #innovation #risk #schlumberg #oilandgas #thecreativitysuite

Here is a refreshing approach to building a team: Make people connect with each other as humans, not just as colleagues. And no, I am not talking about infrequent kick-off meetings that happen way too seldom, or an after-work, which is usually some friends at work going out on a Friday. I am talking about deliberately and consistently connecting people who work with each other to help them better get to know each other as human beings. The man who pointed me towards, what we can call “Humanizing the team”, was Thomas Djursø, Country Manager for Cognizant in Denmark. Thomas told me how he got the local 25 salespeople together on a kind of “speed-dating” with the purpose of getting to know the other person - as a person. Not as an expert or a professional.   "What do you do on the weekends? What are your hobbies? What brave things do you like to do”, and so on. Thomas explained that getting to know the person behind the role builds closer relationships, stronger bonds, and deeper trust. Thomas has these meetings on a regular basis. When you hear about the reasoning behind it, and about how successful it is, you have to wonder why not every team does things like this more often. Thomas: "If I know who someone really is we can make even better business together. It’s about breaking down professional barriers, and you can really connect with someone when you find something that you have in common. Connecting with another person is the spark that starts the fire of curiosity!” Because people know each other they are more inclined to help each other, and a bonus effect was that they got a better understanding of who they were themselves after sharing personal things about themselves with others. People went from being “Mr Johansson who is a data scientist”, to “Bob, who plays saxophone in a jazz band and is a fantastic data scientist and uses his improvisation skills to develop new IT solutions.” And the more people connect on a human level, the more connections are made. Connections build connections. If you know that someone, for example, is playing in a jazz band in their free time, you can have the idea to bring that back to your next kickoff. And it’s working. Employee satisfaction at Cognizant Denmark is very high. People who work there are not “just colleagues”, they are more than that, because they have connected on a personal level. Yes, people connect all the time at work, but seldom is this facilitated in a conscious and deliberate way. It is this idea of turning human connection into an active activity that makes the difference. How could you build more human connections in your teams? #humanconnections #creativity #thecreativitysuite #cognizant

Speaker Adventure Story. Here is a heart-beat-raising-speaker-story that happened to me a few days ago. I was doing a virtual speech from my home studio located on the rooftop of my house on my island. Five minutes (!) before we go live (I have already logged in and have my camera on) I get a call from my wife saying "Our floating dock has gone loose and is quickly floating away from our island!" (There were strong winds at the time (18+ m/s winds!) and the wind had moved the buoy onto deeper waters which let the floating dock loose.) She then added: "I only have 15% battery in our boat and that might not be enough to bring us back to the island in the storm." Moments after that my client came on the call and said: "Ok, Fredrik, the stage is yours!" I had to start my speech not knowing if my wife (or the floating dock) was ok in the storm... To make matters worse, as soon as I started my speech our dog (most likely scared of seeing her "mother" float away in a storm) ran up to my studio and started barking to get in to my room.... So 30 seconds into my speech I had to excause myself to let in the dog into the studio... I did the full one hour speech with no information of the drama that was playing out just outside our island (but I understood that my wife must still be working on solving it as she had not come back to the island...) As soon as the speech ended I turned off my camera and called her to find out that she had been able to dock the escaped dock in a safe place but could not go back to the island due to the strong winds. Glad to hear she was ok. (I wonder how much of that showed in my speech...) The adventures happening behind the scenes of a virtual speech... (Picture of the dock during much calmer seas) #speaking #virtualspeech #islandlife #creativityspeaker